Try Again
by Mirrored Illusions
Summary: Buffy consideres contacting someone who might become a friend.
1. Try Again: Buffy

**Disclaimer**: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon and NCIS: LA belongs to its copyright holder.  
**Author's Note**: Written for Day 23 of the 2019 August Fic-A-Day.  
**A/N**: Very short little snippet. I was called into work on my day off and well, long story short, I had less than an hour to write. *sigh*

Buffy was staring at her phone with a look of indecision on her face. Ten months before she had contacted an old classmate who had grown up to become a Federal Agent for the NCIS. Their first meeting had gone well enough, a little hiccup and then they'd been fine.

The second meeting had been less pleasant. Her team, or more accurately, her team's analysts/hackers had attempted to stick their electronic fingers into the IDC's cookie jar. Willow and Giles and their lawyers and many other people had disproved and it had ended with a cease-and-desist handed to Kensi by Buffy. It had put a real damper on their attempt to rekindle their friendship.

At the moment, Buffy was sitting at a cafe near the beach in sunny LA. The question was whether or not she was going to call or text the other woman, or just call it a lost cause. Did she want a stilted conversation where she tried to apologize again while trying to set up a new meeting? Did she want to send a vague text message to try and arrange a new meeting? Or should she just drop in on her again, if she could find her alone?

The light on her phone was even brighter in the sunshine and the black text spelling out 'Kensi Blye' was mocking her. She stared too long at the screen without doing anything and the light dimmed a little before the screen became completely black.

Team Kensi had taken the legal action seriously and immediately backed off, but word had it they were only biding their time until they found something they could use. Mostly likely leverage to get to the information they had been denied. Their team was an excellent one and generally, they came out of their various scrapes without too much damage. They also had a habit of gaining information they shouldn't have in order to solve their cases.

Still, Buffy wanted someone outside of the supernatural world, someone she could be 'the girl' around rather than 'the Slayer'. Someone who understood that being a woman didn't mean you were weak and needed to be protected. Someone who didn't know she was one of the Chosen Ones. Kensi was well aware of the dangers out there and she knew she could face them just as well as the men surrounding her. Kensi was - if they could get back on an even keel, someone she could relate to and have a mostly normal friendship with. Or so she hoped, at least.

She touched the screen again so the light turned back on, and this time she pushed the small icon of an envelope right under her hopefully-friends name. Without allowing herself to hesitate or second guess herself, she typed 'I'm back in LA again for a couple of weeks. Want to meet up somewhere, just the two of us?'

Re-reading it once she hit 'send' and hoped for the best. If Kensi was interested she would respond, if not, well. That was an answer all by itself.


	2. Try Again: Kensi

Timeline: BtVS: Post-Chosen & NCIS: LA: S08'ish.  
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon and the NCIS 'verse belongs to rich people with expensive lawyers.  
Author's Note: Written for Day 27 of the 2019 August Fic-A-Day.

The premier team of NCIS' Office of Special Projects was sitting in the bullpen catching up on paperwork while waiting to be called on to investigate a new case. The only sounds that could be heard were the four people tapping away on the keys of their laptops. For once no one was talking, making jokes, or attempting to rile someone up for entertainment purposes.

Into the silence came a sudden ding and all four residents immediately checked their respective phones to see if they were the lucky or unlucky one who got a distraction from the never-ending reports they always had to type up for their bosses. The winner of the text proved to be the only woman in their part of the room, and she quickly activated her phone but froze momentarily when she saw the name of the sender.

Pushing down frustration and annoyance she opened the text to see what the woman wanted. It turned out to be two simple sentences. 'I'm back in LA again for a couple of weeks. Want to meet up somewhere, just the two of us?' If she had gotten the text from Cat, Mindy, Mandy, Tiffany, or Tiffany she would've been overjoyed and shot a text back a.s.a.p. with a suggestion for a time and place.

But Buffy Summers wasn't a close friend and even when they had run in the same circles back in high school they had been very different. The Buffy Kensi remembered was an airheaded teenage girl who had been obsessed with fashion, boys, cheerleading, and her daddy's bank account. Kensi had been a tomboy who enjoyed sports and outdoorsy things.

Looking back, she had no idea why she even spent time with them, or why they allowed it. Buffy's clique had been the top of the food chain at Hemery High and Kensi had been a military brat. Despite that, she had been permitted to hang out on occasion.

The Buffy she had been reintroduced to 10 months ago had not been an airhead, far from it. She had moved with precision and deliberation, much like a soldier or maybe a predator but her record didn't show any military training. The main difference was that the short woman did it without it looking forced or even drilled into her. Her confidence was real, but the veneer of the high school girl who was obsessed with fashion and boys was still there, worn as a shield for something else. It was probably real up to a certain point, but mostly it was to get people to underestimate her. It's was a clever trick she had used many times herself.

It was the 'something else' that had the NCIS Special Agent worried, along with whatever her organization was hiding. The question was, did she want to know? The higher-ups had made it crystal clear that they were to obey the C&D or else.

"Kens?" Callen asked from her left side. "Anything interesting or is it something else?"

She looked up at him and deliberated for about two seconds if she should tell them, before replying. "It's from Buffy, she wants to meet up."

Deeks' eyebrows disappeared into his hair. "Buffy? As in the Buffy who served us a cease-and-desist last year for trying to find out what kind of criminal activity her group's up to? That Buffy?"

"Yes, that Buffy. She's here for a couple of weeks and wants to see me. Alone." Without really knowing why, she added, "And we don't know if they're doing anything criminal."

"We don't know it's legal either," Sam interjected. "It could be a corrupt organization connected to any number of things with criminal ties or high up officials."

Ignoring his partner, Callen got her attention again. "Are you going to meet her?"

She looked back down at the text. She hadn't gotten a bad impression of Buffy, and she had genuinely seemed apologetic about the official document. "Yeah, I think I will." That got her raised eyebrows and surprised expressions all around.

"What? Why? What if she's a serial killer and just waiting for you to walk into her web of shadowy deals and crime lords?"

"Deeks," she laughed. "She won't kill me or try anything. "She knows I'm a federal agent, and I'm sure she expects me to tell you I'm meeting her." She leaned back in her chair. "Buffy probably expects you to either tag along or hide in the bushes."

Shaking her head, she began typing out a quick text. 'I might get the weekend off from work. if I do I'll text you a time and date for us to meet up.' It was vague and gave her an easy out if she changed her mind.

Breaking into the lively discussion regarding Buffy's supposed life of crime or possible innocence she raised her voice a little, "I'll meet her if we get a day or the week off. I've already replied."

Sam was about to add his two cents into the mix when Eric whistled and they all rose and went to ascend the stairs to get briefed on their new case.


	3. Try Again: Fail Better?

Timeline: BtVS: Post-Chosen & NCIS: LA: S08'ish.  
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon and the NCIS 'verse belongs to rich people with expensive lawyers.  
Author's Note: Written for Day 31 of the 2019 August Fic-A-Day.

Kensi ended up having to work through the weekend, but sent her an apology and asked if she wanted to meet for lunch on Monday instead. Which was why Buffy was currently walking towards a cafe not too far from the beach where's she'd spent a few hours lazing in the sunshine.

This particular trip to Los Angeles was a working vacation, and Kensi was just one of the people from her old high school clique she had tried to reestablish contact with. It turned out half of them were dead and the other half considered themselves to be above her because of the whole expulsion thing back in the mid-'90s. The living half was busy being socialites or trophy wives or both, something she had actually aspired to become back in the day.

Obviously, her goals had changed drastically since then. Hence the auction she was in LA to attend. A private collector had recently passed away and his children were putting much of their inheritance up for bids. Giles had sent her to bid on the man's entire book collection as it was rumored to contain some very rare works and her former mentor had coveted them for decades.

It wasn't her normal gig, but every now and then he sent her to these things. To almost everyone's surprise, she'd been rather effective in getting whatever it was they needed from the auctions, hence why they kept sending her. It wasn't until later in the week though, so she was spending her time trying to track down people from her past.

She had accidentally run into a male acquaintance who had been a year above her at Hemery. Much to her surprise, he had joined the armed forces and was only in LA to visit his parents during his leave. He had not seemed to be the type to strictly follow orders from anyone, but apparently, he had cleaned up his act and was doing well for himself.

They had exchanged phone numbers and promised to at least text on occasion. It had felt good, even if it was someone she hadn't know well. Everyone she knew now was people she had met after moving to Sunnydale, and mostly connected to her work in some way. It was why she was trying to reconnect with the people she had known at Hemery.

She had grown out of her airheaded phase, so it was possible they had, too. Or, at least she hoped they had.

Kensi Blye was a wild card. Back in high school she had been an attractive girl without much effort, she easily gained friends, but a then-15-year-old Buffy had still considered her a charity case due to her father's career. Befriending her, even if it was more of a peripheral friend, had made her clique look good. Or that's what their self-centered teenage selves had though. Thinking back, the girl had probably considered them to be some strange kind of entertainment, akin to a freakshow, maybe.

While walking towards the agreed-upon cafe, she spotted the woman and her boyfriend. A tall man was sitting on either side of them, presumably leaving a space for her in between them. The man right beside Kensi was dark-skinned, bald, and looked like he bench-pressed small cars for fun. The man beside the boyfriend looked attractive in a 'he'll fit in anywhere with the right clothes and attitude' kind of thing going on.

Come to think of it, they were all strangely attractive unlike most of the law enforcement she had ever met. She mentally shrugged it off as most people in the city trying too hard to look good. The SDPD didn't seem to have gotten that memo, or maybe Sunnydale wasn't adjacent enough...

Buffy was two tables away when Shaggy the Boyfriend noticed her, and called out a greeting and alerting the other three who had all been looking in different directions.

"Hey," Buffy replied as she very deliberately surveyed the occupants around the table. "Interesting definition you have of 'alone'." But she smiled none the less, she had been expecting them to be there after all. It was better they were honest about not trusting her than attempting to blend into the background when they no doubt knew she knew what they looked like.

"Hey, Buffy. You know how guys are, and last year didn't help so." She indicated the three men, "They're here to see you're not the big, bad wolf they seem to think you are."

The big, bad wolf was actually not that much taller than her, much more laid back, and not bad at all. She didn't say any of that though.

"Not much with the wolfiness, nope. Or the badness," unless you were a vamp or a demon. Then she was the baddest of the bad. And then, because she couldn't help herself, "Am I supposed to be intimidated by you two?" She made eye contact with Mr. Muscles first and then Blue Eyes. "You know, with the big, bulging biceps and everything?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Probably because Muscles over there is all but flexing to prove something or other." It would've worked better if she didn't regularly kill supernatural threats that were much stronger and faster than any of these men would ever be unless they were turned.

Across the table, Kensi looked like she was trying to make up her mind whether she should laugh at the ridiculousness of it all or hide her face in her hands. Shaggy was leaning forward a little, allowing the bigger guys to do the intimidating but he clearly wasn't thrilled about her presence in his girlfriend's life.

Blue Eyes snorted but didn't contradict her, so she took it as a win.

Kensi was clearly surrounded by people who cared deeply about her and her well-being, and that was great. Everyone deserved people like that. What wasn't so great was the wrong conclusion they'd come to regarding her intentions and the IDC's M.O.

She became serious. "Look, guys. I'm not here to make trouble. There's no reason to threaten me, directly or indirectly. The C&D only happened because your people couldn't keep their digital mittens out of my organization's cookie jar after multiple warnings from the higher-ups. I just want to see if Kensi and I have a chance at becoming friends or not."

Unfortunately, she was regretting even thinking it might be a good idea. This entire mess was more than she wanted to deal with, and she was tired of having to explain herself to everyone all the time. Reaching out was supposed to be easy, a yes or no to her suggestion, not involve either of their work and especially not legal documents.

"There's no hidden agenda, no attempts to commit any crimes."

She sighed heavily. This was more posturing than she was willing to deal with today. Enough was enough, this was getting her nowhere fast. Kensi was clearly a bust in the friends' category, and she needed to just cut her losses before she got even more involved. She rose from the chair she'd sat down in only minutes before.

"This was clearly a mistake on my part, so I'll cut it short." Buffy looked at Kensi, "You have my phone number, it'll be valid for another six months or so and then it'll get disconnected. Contact me through that number before that if you manage to make up your own mind without the help of any of your bodyguards."

Then she walked away, ignoring her name being called and the running footsteps trying to catch up as she melted into the crowds and vanished from their view.

Her reaction was uncalled for, but so was the ambush. It was probably guaranteed to 'prove' she was a criminal to Shaggy and the two male Agents. She hadn't done anything wrong, and she was overreacting. Buffy knew this, and she also knew it was because of the power struggles within the IDC and everyone wanting her to side with them.

All Buffy wanted was a friendly ear, someone she could be 'the girl' with. Someone who wouldn't try and use her for their own gain. Someone who didn't blame her for something that wasn't her fault. It was getting clear that Kensi wasn't that someone.

Kensi would contact her or she wouldn't. The next step was entirely up to the other woman.


End file.
